Victory! Rite Aid agrees that there’s nothing cheerful about dogs who can’t breathe. After learning from PETA that breathing-impaired dog breeds (BIB)—including bulldogs, pugs, boxers, and other flat-faced dogs—suffer from devastating health conditions, Rite Aid is phasing out all greeting cards featuring the breeds at more than 2,100 stores nationwide. The third-largest U.S. drugstore chain hopes to have them off the shelves entirely by June.
PETA is celebrating Rite Aid for taking a stand against promoting flat-faced dogs and urges other businesses to follow its lead. To show our thanks, we’re sending the company a decadent custom vegan cake featuring decorations of adorable pups who aren’t breathing-impaired.
This isn’t the first time we’ve thanked Rite Aid for helping animals. The chain previously banned greeting cards featuring unnatural depictions of great apes that could hinder conservation efforts and pledged to install signs at all its stores alerting customers to the dangers of leaving animals and children in parked cars.
read more: https://www.peta.org/blog/rite-aid-flat-faced-dogs/
I have a pug (he was a stray I took as a foster dog and then adopted). I’m lucky with his health as he doesn’t have the laboured breathing (he is much taller/longer than average and much more exercise tolerant), and yet I still warn people who admire him what the risks are every time. He is a cute and funny dog, and even my vet friend talks about how it’s hard not to like a pug because their personalities are so fun, but brachycephalic breeds are unethical.